Feature articles about WMU faculty conducting international research.
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Ala Al-Fuqaha
Margaret von Steinen
A wide range of road safety and driver assistive applications— Intelligent Transport Systems—could result from a collaborative research project that Dr. Ala Al-Fuqaha, WMU professor of computer science, is working on with Dr. Elyes Hamida at the Qatar Mobility Innovation Center and Dr. Bharat Bhargava at Purdue University.
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Alexander Cannon
Carol Barber
A chance introduction to a largely unknown genre of Vietnamese royal court music that Dr. Alexander Cannon experienced while majoring in economics and music as an undergraduate forged an interest that changed the trajectory of his intended career path from analyzing economic trends to becoming an ethnomusicologist and an expert on don ca tai tu.
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Ed Roth
Margaret von Steinen
Can listening to and making music be effectively used in the treatment of people diagnosed with neurologic and psychiatric disorders? This is the primary question Professor Ed Roth, director of WMU’s music therapy program, is attempting to answer in collaboration with colleagues from around the world to improve treatment for people experiencing post-traumatic stress and other acute anxiety disorders. He is a co-founder and director of WMU’s Laboratory for Brain Research and Interdisciplinary Neurosciences (BRAIN) (article) and a Fellow in the Academy of Neurologic Music Therapists, who specializes in the application of music in the treatment of neurologic disorders and diseases of the central nervous system in pediatric and adult populations.
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Leon Sun
Linda Hanes
Living and working in two countries provided a cultural contrast that has greatly inspired and influenced the art and design of Yuanliang (Leon) Sun, an associate professor of art at Western Michigan University.
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Martha Councell-Vargas
Christine Lena
Travelling to Central America in college is all it took to inspire Martha Councell-Vargas to begin a career of teaching, researching, and performing flute music of the Americas.
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Patrick Wilson
Christine Lena
New urban developments in the growing city of Chongqing, China have captured the imagination of Artist Patrick D. Wilson, a Western Michigan University assistant professor of sculpture and integrated media, whose art work is often influenced by architectural imagery.
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Steve Durbin
Margaret von Steinen
For a researcher at a globally engaged university, international collaboration comes naturally. When Dr. Steve Durbin, professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation to explore the synthesis and characterization of a new semiconductor (ZnSnN2) comprised solely of earth-abundant elements, he and his students embarked on this project with partners in the United Kingdom, Finland, and New Zealand, as well as Colorado, Michigan and Florida.
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Ann Miles
Jerry Malec
Touching saltwater marks at the waterline of a cargo ship in Lake Michigan when she was just nine years old planted the question in the mind of Dr. Ann Miles: Where has this ship been?
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Inayat U. Mangla
Haenicke Instititue for Global Education
Captivated by the economic culture he encountered in the mid-1970s while studying in the United States as a Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Inayat U. Mangla, a native of Lahore, Pakistan, joined Western Michigan University’s faculty in 1985 and has become an internationally recognized expert on global financial markets.
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Jaqueline Eng
Margaret von Steinen
Evidence of what might be an ancient funerary defleshing ritual found in human-made caves in the Upper Mustang region of Nepal has been discovered by WMU bio-archaeologist Dr. Jacqueline Eng as a member of a research team that is funded in part by the National Geographic Society.
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William W. Cobern
Margaret von Steinen
Dr. William W. Cobern, Distinguished University Professor of Science Education and Biological Sciences as well as director of the Mallinson Institute for Science Education, spent five months in Turkey beginning in September 2011 conducting research and giving lectures on methods for effective instruction for the teaching of science.
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Ann Veeck
Nate Coe
Rapidly changing food consumption patterns in China has for the last 15 years captured the attention of Western Michigan University international researcher and marketing professor Dr. Ann Veeck. In nearly annual trips to China, Veeck examines how these patterns are changing parallel to the expansion of the Chinese economy and how marketing efforts affect consumers' lives in both positive and negative ways.
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Blair Balden
Margaret von Steinen
A visiting professorship at the University of Passau in Passau, Germany for Dr. Blair Balden, a WMU associate professor of aviation, provided an excellent opportunity to share ideas and information about teaching aviation law with professors from Germany and Austria.
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Jeffrey Angles
Nate Coe
Dr. Jeffrey Angles likes to describe himself as the accidental professor because, unlike many people he knows who planned to become teachers when they completed their educations, he was more focused on the immediate goal of studying Japanese literature and translating. In the process of reading so much, he says that he found himself with a Ph.D. almost before he knew it.
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Susan Weinger
Nate Coe
Advancing the knowledge of rural Bangladeshi women about gardening and nutrition and increasing access to basic health care services and information for Cambodian school children was the foci of Dr. Susan Weinger’s research and volunteerism on a three-month overseas trip in summer 2010.
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Jim Butterfield
Nate Coe
Post-Cold War Russia has provided WMU political science professor Dr. Jim Butterfield with an exceptional model for conducting research on transition environments and the role civic initiative plays in defining the public agenda and addressing collective action dilemmas.
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Victor Xiong
Julia Valentine
Dr. Victor Cunrui Xiong, Western Michigan University professor of Chinese and East Asian history, is a Chinese medievalist by training recognized internationally for his research and publications focused on Early Imperial China, especially the Sui-Tang period.
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Todd Barkman
Julia Valentine
Dr. Todd Barkman grew up in Pinckney, Mich. and admits growing up in a rural area is what first inspired his interest in plants. While studying at Michigan State University, he had the opportunity to grow orchids for the botany department. "I fell in love with orchids," Barkman said. "I decided I wanted to work with and study orchids for the rest of my life."
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Gregory Veeck
Margaret von Steinen
Dr. Gregory Veeck, professor of geography, has completed extensive international research specializing in economic geography, agriculture, rural development and rural environmental/ecological issues in the United States, China, Japan, and Korea. Veeck has been conducting field research for 29 years.